


Dying Message

by orphan_account



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Suicidal Thoughts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-16 21:37:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21043184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: ShuAke Week 2019 Day Two:SoulmatesIn a world where one of the last things your soulmate says to you is imprinted onto your wrist, Goro Akechi wishes his had said anything else.





	Dying Message

_“Let’s make a deal... ok?  
You won’t say no...will you?”_

|  


_“I promise.”_

* * *

Throughout his whole life, Goro Akechi had stared at the words tattooed on his wrist. When he was younger, he’d looked at it as a sign of hope; after all, such a mark means that he has another half!

Stories told by his mother said that a soulmate is somebody who will love you unconditionally. They always claimed that finding such a person is like finding the missing piece of one’s puzzle. If Goro had someone like that, well... he just couldn’t wait.

Ever so naive as a child, he asked his mom if she ever met her soulmate. Her only  
reply was a sad smile and murmured words. _Sometimes you have a soulmate, but they aren’t yours._

His bright, wine eyes blinked up at her, a bit confused. What could she have meant? Wasn’t a soulmate someone who was stitched with you in fate’s grand design?As much as he tried to comprehend, he just couldn’t. 

Goro only understood what she meant years after he found her in a crimson bathtub.

Being passed as if he’s the gift nobody wants from foster home to foster home, orphanage to orphanage, Goro saw all facets of human beings- of society itself. Adults would pretend that they would love or cherish him in order to get their due funds and then send him back. It was an endless loop he knew he wouldn’t escape from. Growing up he found no reason to continue hoping there was someone who understood him; at least not while he had bruises from one home and was hungry from another.

The two words written on his wrist weren’t one of an eternal oath of love as he wished.

_ “I promise.” _

The last two words that he hears from his soulmate. 

To Goro, it was just another broken promise among many.

* * *

When Goro first saw the Phantom Thieves in the metaverse, he honestly didn’t think much.

They were a group of rag-tag teenagers that were naive enough to think that they could cut the poisoned roots of society- he had to laugh. Working for his father made him realize it’s pointless. Goro knew that if you eliminate a pawn of corruption, it’s only temporary; someone else will soon fill the shoes that were left. 

He first saw them by coincidence in Madarame’s Palace. Goro had been doing grunt work for his father when he spotted them accidentally trip the alarm system like idiots. All of them had been trapped except for one, and Goro was extremely unimpressed by their amateurism.

The only thing that really stood out about the thieves was their leader. Not only did the raven-haired boy dubbed “Joker” free the rest of his teammates from their idiocy, he also seemed to be the only other person that could use multiple personas like Goro. _Was it a special ability only they possessed?_ Goro had always assumed it was normal to be able to use more than one, but now he understands that there may be a purpose behind the rarity. He and Joker are the only ones that are able to wield multiple personas because they’re fated rivals- destined to be enemies.

Well, Goro doesn’t plan to lose.

After meeting Amamiya Ren, he’d quickly ascertained his identity- after all, there weren’t that many blonde duos in Tokyo. Meeting Goro while they were all together was pure misfortune on Amamiya’s part. (He isn’t aware of their true battle yet; he thinks Goro is only the detective chasing him and his friends.) 

Amamiya’s lips spoke lies so sweetly that Goro knows they were the same. They were the same and that meant that Goro shouldn’t trust the small false truths that attempted to ease his mind. (Amamiya didn’t lie like Goro did, no. He lied in a way that was so subtle that one couldn’t spot it unless they themselves were skilled in the art of deceit. The thief could switch from mask to mask so effortlessly that it was no wonder he could the same in the metaverse.) 

They were the same and that meant that Goro shouldn’t trust the poison tongue that slipped into his mouth when their lips met during long days and later nights. 

Goro knows better than to believe his lies. After all, Amamiya Ren stands for everything that he doesn’t have and everything he could lose.

Just like him, Amamiya always wore long sleeves to cover the words on his wrist no matter the weather. Just like him, Amamiya’s soulmate must have unpleasant final words.

It was a shame that Goro never got a glimpse at the other’s wrist. If he dreamed then perhaps the words could match; they could form a sentence that fits together like two puzzle pieces.

There was no point though. Goro hadn’t dreamed since his mother was alive.

* * *

Goro knew that his days were numbered ever since he was 15. He accepted it, and had never planned on meeting his soulmate before his timely demise. Once he had fulfilled his destiny of dethroning his father, he knew that there would be nothing else for him but to follow in his mother’s footsteps. That’s why it didn’t matter who’s wrist matched his own, and that’s why it didn’t matter what promise was being broken. Goro had a job to do, and he wouldn’t let something like a _soulmate_ get in the way. He had been alone for the majority of his life- that didn’t need to change.

As the November deadline drew closer, his resolve definitely didn’t wane. 

It didn’t matter that he was starting to _like_ Amamiya. The asinine outings with the phantom thieves in which they tried to make him feel included didn’t either. They didn’t.

That’s why when he pointed his gun between Amamiya Ren’s eyes he smiled. He didn’t feel anything other than the relief that he’d finally won. Amamiya didn’t say anything. He didn’t say the two words that Goro had been dreading to hear his whole life. After the phantom thief died, Goro didn’t feel a stinging burn on his wrist or a feel of pain deep in his soul. He felt nothing, and he was relieved.

Goro went through his daily life as if nothing happened. He was the hero that defeated the phantom thieves with a plastic smile, and that hero didn’t care whether Amamiya Ren was dead or alive. He didn’t.

When the weather grew colder and his last days grew nearer, Goro prepared himself for his father’s fall from fame. 

Whether or not he suspected the Phantom Thieves were still running rampant didn’t matter to him. He would just crush them as he did before. If Joker was still alive, fine. They would settle it once and for all.

His final confrontation with the vigilantes didn’t go as expected. Everything that had kept boiling beneath his blood finally spilled out as steam would from a kettle. So what if he made himself turn psychotic? It didn’t matter.

It didn’t.

<strike>It didn’t. </strike>

The shutter closed and Goro Akechi finally felt free. He could finally do something to help someone else for once. Goro closed his eyes and his destiny was clear. This whole time, he had lost sight of his goal. Joker wasn’t his enemy, no. His true enemy was his father and the fate that bound him to such a villainous role. 

It was only when he heard the two words in a shaky voice that that he understood. Those two words he had always been dreading fell from his rivals lips.

This time, the words that fell from Amamiya’s lips weren’t a lie. It didn’t matter though, it was too late.

In Goro’s life, it always was. How unfortunate Amamiya was to get him as a soulmate.

* * *

_ “Let’s make a deal...ok?  
You won’t say no...will you?”_

_“Change Shido’s heart...in my stead...End his crimes. Please…!”_

_”I promise.”_

**Author's Note:**

> I tried something different....idk how well it worked though. Well thanks for reading! Feedback is appreciated <3


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